I kind of love Gwyneth Paltrow, mostly because of her depiction of the beautifully broken Margot in one of my favourite movies, "The Royal Tenenbaums."
There's plenty about Gwyneth that I get: why she dated Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck back in the nineties; why she wore all those mini dresses during the promotional tour for "Iron Man" last fall (and why, for that matter, she loves her new trainer, Tracy Anderson); and why she fell for the charms of Coldplay guy Chris Martin.
However, in many ways, Gwyneth Paltrow is like a Rubik's Cube in Christian Louboutins. Things I don't get about her include, but are not limited to: why she broke up with Brad and/or Ben; why she did "Shallow Hal"; why she road-tripped across Spain with creepy chef Mario Batali for that cooking show; and, finally, and this is probably the most mind-boggling, why she named her recently launched lifestyle website "GOOP."
Goop? Who names a website "Goop"? But, then, you could also ask who names a child "Apple"? That's easy: Gwyneth Paltrow does.
I'm not the only one who finds the naming of this website perplexing. But, from what I've read on the Internet, it doesn't seem that anyone has discovered the true meaning (if there even is any) behind this almost grotesque name.
Maybe it's her initials? Gwyneth Ophelia Olywn Paltrow. Or, Gwyneth Olympia Oprah Paltrow. Who knows.
Could be what she uses in her hair to make it so shiny.
Maybe it's what she says when she's really, really mad.
Anyway, I guess I'm over it now. It's just hard to take something called GOOP seriously. But maybe that's the point - it's an escape to total frivolity in a world with too much bombing and too many bankruptcies. I'll chock it up to one of the universe's great, unkownable mysteries. But there's still part of me that wants to know, "Why? Why, Gwyneth, why?"
I got to thinking about all of this after I visited the website a few days ago (it launched in October and I've been a few times since). The site invites you to "nourish the inner aspect" and is divided into sections: "Make, Go, Get, Do, Be, See." Every week, Gwyneth (or an employee posing as Gwyneth) publishes a newsletter under one of the six categories. When I went to goop.com the other day, I watched a workout video with hardcore butt and leg exercises from Gwyneth's trainer, Tracy, in a newsletter called "Sticktoitiveness" (filed under "Do"). I felt inspired, wrote down the sequence and gave the moves a whirl. Three days later, my whole lower body still aches.
I can blame Gwyneth Paltrow for confusing me with a nonsense website name, but there's no one but myself to blame for the fact that I put so much time and energy into actually caring about it - and then writing about it.
I'm also the only person to blame for the fact that I'm apparently a total weakling since my muscles haven't yet recovered.
CBC About to Become a Meaningless Acronymn
11 years ago
The GOOP name generated a lot of negative press when the site originally launched, and for good reason, since it's dumb. I think we are just running out of names for things on the internet.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, here's Gwyn's explanation of GOOP: http://www.imnotobsessed.com/2009/01/07/one-mystery-explained-gwyneth-paltrow-on-goop
P.S. I think I saw her on Bay St. during the Film Fest. Can't be sure, but she sure liked like Gwyneth trying not to be recognized as Gwyneth.
"Tell me that it's nobody's fault, nobody's fault, but my own" -Beck?
ReplyDeleteI was going to say the same thing as darrell. Since all the URL's are getting taken up, we have to use meaningless names to describe unrelated things. I was wondering about why url's aren't case sensitive. We could have at least twice as many URL's if they were, probably exponentially more.
Work outs are hard. I tried yesterday during my break at work (we have a gym in our building) but when I came back everyone remarked that I looked like I was going to have a heart attack because my face was it's idiosyncratic shade of red, for like an hour. In any case, hope you now have buns of steel (but not too too steely).
Cool, Darrell. Thanks for the link - her explanation helps. I can rest easy now. That's pretty cool that you think you saw her on Bay St.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the earlier tips on blogging! I'll do my best to keep it up.